Jammu and Kashmir: security after the 2019 changes

On 5 August 2019, the Union government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution, through a presidential order and a parliamentary resolution, and Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, bifurcating the former state into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The government argued that the change would bring full integration, development and an end to separatism and cross-border terrorism; critics argued that it was imposed without the consent of the state's people and that the accompanying communications restrictions and detentions were excessive.

In December 2023, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, in In re: Article 370 of the Constitution, upheld the abrogation, holding that Article 370 was a temporary provision and that the President's action was valid, while directing that statehood be restored to Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest and that assembly elections be held by September 2024. Assembly elections were held in September–October 2024, and a new elected government took office in Jammu and Kashmir, while Ladakh remained a Union Territory without a legislature.

Security assessments since 2019 are contested. The government points to lower levels of stone-pelting and street protest, higher tourist arrivals in some years and the holding of elections as signs of normalcy. Critics point to continued militant attacks, including targeted killings, restrictions on political activity and press freedom as reported by journalists and rights groups, and the absence of restored statehood as signs that normalcy is incomplete. Both sets of claims should be checked against official data and independent reporting rather than accepted from either side alone.

The durable questions are constitutional and political rather than only military: when and on what terms statehood is restored, how cross-border infiltration is prevented, how local political parties and civil society are given space, and how the grievances of displaced Kashmiri Pandits and of people in Jammu and Ladakh are addressed. Security operations can suppress violence; only a political settlement can remove its causes.